Social media is a growing giant in the marketing realm. Let's take a look at which social media sites are best-suited to various industries, going by the most popular platforms. Once you are ready to create - or build up - your account, check out our guide to building strong profiles.

Twitter
Professional services firms, legal entities, technology companies and those in other industries that involve content-heavy sales and marketing campaigns find a potent platform in Twitter. The platform has also incorporated more effective video and image sharing capabilities, allowing marketers to diversify their content marketing campaigns on the site. It's an effective platform to promote blogs, and have fast, instant conversation. Every month, 330 million people are still using it. Check out our 10 Best Twitter Best Practices for Small Businesses.

Facebook
Even with their recent scrutiny in the media, this is the most widely used social media platform in the realm of marketing, with 16 million local businesses currently active on Facebook. Simply put, every business, regardless of industry or target market, ought to use this platform for both marketing and customer service purposes. Facebook has 2.2 billion monthly users and shows no signs of slowing down. Use this platform to share all content types, including video, images and blogs. Facebook ads are also another simple and inexpensive way to reach targeted customers. Here's a look at how to set them up for your business.

Instagram
This is an exceptional platform for retailers and competitors in the food and beverage industries, as posting images and videos and products can help to drive brand recognition. Make sure your business takes high-quality photographs, keeps captions brief and engages users in a highly mobile-centric fashion. The site focuses on images - not words. With more than 800 million users monthly, it's a great site to build a follower base.

LinkedIn
Much like Twitter, LinkedIn is a great platform for professional services and specifically business-to-business industries. Blogging on LinkedIn can help to cement executives and company owners into the stature of thought leaders, boosting an enterprise's legitimacy in the process. To be more specific, organizations that rely on the images of their salespeople, project managers, leaders and others in the public eye are best-suited to this platform. Make sure you check out our LinkedIn Profile Tips guide to ensure you've built a powerful profile.
​General tips
Make sure you don't spread yourself too thin in social media. A powerful campaign on one platform will always be more effective than lackluster ones across all of the sites. Also, keep an eye on the sites that become more prominent in the social media sector - YouTube, Google+, Periscope and Snapchat, for instance.

​Check out our digital toolbox for more digital marketing tips for your business.